Okay I understand that it's still early for my daughter and homeschooling, but my boyfriend feels that since I plan on HSing that starting out slow and early would be the best idea for DD#1 (She'll be 3 in November).

What sort of toys, books (reading, workbooks, coloring ect..), videos would you recommend? Webpage links would be grand!

We're mostly looking for the basics for now (colors, shapes, letters, numbers) but other than Melissa and Doug stuff I'm sort of stumped.

Well if DD#1 is anything like me then she's going to be a visual hands on type. And I need ideas for the toys to play with and I have not a clue where to start (hence my asking about webpages). Even a webpage as a jumping off point would be great.

I like the books Preschool Activities in a Bag and Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready. Lauri puzzles and toys are great for this age too. www.rainbowresource.com has lots of materials for the preschool age.

Okay I understand that it's still early for my daughter and homeschooling, but my boyfriend feels that since I plan on HSing that starting out slow and early would be the best idea for DD#1 (She'll be 3 in November).

What sort of toys, books (reading, workbooks, coloring ect..), videos would you recommend? Webpage links would be grand!

We're mostly looking for the basics for now (colors, shapes, letters, numbers) but other than Melissa and Doug stuff I'm sort of stumped.

With our first son, we did a letter and number a week. Like week 1 was A and number 1. We are going to start that with our second son soon, but he knows a lot of his alphabet already and numbers. Good luck!

Life skills are so, so important. Have her help wash dishes (plastic dishes in a plastic tub on the floor), sorting things like laundry, dishes, etc... They need to learn to sort for school and using real live examples really helps. Even sorting by color using different colored candies, etc....

Here are some links I found VERY helpful with my dd as far as workbook learning. I searched for these for hours when I first started. Enjoy

ABC Teach - Mostly free. Some things need to be paid for but a lot don't.

Ambleside Online is a Charlotte Mason style I think you'll like a lot. You can get books off the booklist at your nearest library or on Project Gutenburg. Reading is one of the best things you could do at this age

The LeapFrog Letter factory DVDs are awesome! Both of my older kids learned letter sounds and beginning phonics from these. Our daughter had just turned 2 when we bought these, was not talking much yet, and within weeks was telling us the sounds all the letters made!

Also my kids both like the magic school bus videos and books...she may be a little young to fully understand all of them, but kids are amazing about what they can absorb!

My daughter is 2.5, and we are using the free preschool curriculum from www.letteroftheweek.com - she loves it. Each week focuses on a different animal, letter and number and you get ideas for lots of easy crafts and ways to explore that type of animal. There's also a children's book list related to that type of animal so you get to have a trip to the library to pick out books about "cows" or "horses" or something. I thought it was a little silly at first but my daughter really gets a lot out of it and enjoys it. She is actually learning a lot of the words for the baby animals too, like calf and kid, etc. and seems to be coming to an understanding of numbers- not just knowing the sight and sound, but also realizing that one means ONE cookie, not TWO, and two is more than one, etc. It seems age appropriate, fun and not too "schoolish" to me. I feel like we are bonding over cows rather than I am pushing her to learn something... It's hard to explain-I am in the "let them be young while they are young" camp but I still think this curriculum can fit into that philosophy.

I've also got my eye on "Before Five In a Row" but we'll save that for next year...